Climate change, pollution hurt African-American community

President Barack Obama was in Stockholm this month to focus on issues including climate change, trade and technology.

This has been an historic year recalling the long fight for equality and civil rights this country endured, but so often we talk about the work we have left to do. We have made major strides in the last half-century, but full equality extends to our environment and our health, in which African-Americans still face a disproportionate number of challenges.

We cannot sit back and watch as the effects of climate change wreak the worst havoc on poor and communities of color.

Having worked in the Indianapolis community with many people who are looking for a second chance at life, there is often a common theme in the environment they were born into. It isn't just bad economics, it's bad health.

Lower income and communities of color are already predisposed to higher health risks and often live the closest to the sources of carbon pollution, which fuels climate change.

The American Lung Association finds that more than 20.2 million people below the poverty line are living in areas that receive at least one failing grade for air pollutants, and 4.5 million in poverty are breathing air that fails all three of the ALA's air pollution tests.

Sixty-eight percent of African-Americans live within 30 miles of a coal plant, meaning the one in 6 African-American kids with asthma is at a higher risk of having more asthma attacks compared to the rest of the country. Those who live in major cities and next to highways face the same increased health risks.

So even before they are born, many start with a worse chance at a healthy life. That's not right. We have a moral obligation to address the carbon pollution that causes climate change, and to be an advocate for the many people who face serious health risks.

Indianapolis is one of the the nation's worst cities, receiving "D" and "F" grades in the American Lung Association "State of the Air" report for the kind of pollution that makes asthma attacks more common, puts people with respiratory disease or diabetes at higher risk, and affects the poorest among us worse than most others.

Thankfully, leaders across the country are taking note of the overwhelming scientific evidence and coming to recognize climate change as one of the greatest threats of our time.

This year President Obama stepped up to show that public health and a healthy environment are a priority for him by unveiling a national climate action plan, which includes the nation's first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants, along with measures to strengthen our nation's infrastructure against the effects of climate change and new investments in clean energy and energy efficiency.

We cannot wait any longer to act. It is time to carry the spirit of the civil rights movement into the 21st century, and there is no greater threat to the future and the health of our children and grandchildren than carbon pollution and climate change.

Michael A. Wolley

pastor, TouchOne, TouchAll Ministries

Indianapolis

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Climate change, pollution hurt African-American community

This has been an historic year recalling the long fight for equality and civil rights this country endured, but so often we talk about the work we have left to do. We have made major strides in the